IRA double agent: I spied on the loyalist paramilitaries too

A FORMER double agent inside the IRA also targeted loyalist paramilitaries as a paid informant, he revealed yesterday.

Kevin Fulton claimed that had he led police to a counterfeiting workshop in north Belfast.

The spy confirmed his role after details of his actions were included in what is believed to be a leaked intelligence document.

Mr Fulton alleged that Protestant terrorists’ hunger for illegal cash was so strong they even went to the Provisionals to get the equipment needed.

He said: “I always targeted republicans because I had an inroad into them. But when the loyalists started dealing with them, I was able to help police take them out in a successful operation.”

According to a secret statement, claiming to come from a detective inspector in the Police Service of Northern Ireland who acted as Mr Fulton’s handler, the agent provided details on the copying operation in September 1999.

“The workshop was used to copy CDs and audio tapes on behalf of loyalist paramilitaries,” the document on a US-based security website said.

“During a search of the premises, a CD copying machine and CD copies were found and two persons were arrested. In total property in excess of stg£50,000 was recovered. Fulton was paid stg£2,500 for this information and continued to provide information in respect of counterfeiting copying and the cloning of mobile phones.”

It is understood the details relate to an alleged raid carried out on a garage containing a stairway, which led to hidden room where the operation was sited.

Mr Fulton, whose unheeded warning of an imminent dissident republican terror strike was at the centre of a scathing appraisal of the police investigation into the 1998 Omagh bomb atrocity, linked the counterfeiting operation to the Ulster Volunteer Force.

The agent, who is living in hiding in England, is locked in a lengthy court battle with the British Government over his demands for a new security package.

He was alarmed that details of his work against loyalists had been made public, claiming it had exposed him to further danger, saying: “I am shocked at all this.

“This must have been leaked by the authorities to do either myself or my former handlers harm within the Protestant community because that is something no-one knew about.

“I will now be taking this up with my legal representatives.”